More shipping methods, New feature sets

August 3, 2012 jodie barr

OrderStorm keeps adding features to help you customize your store and sell more. The latest beta version of the OrderStorm WordPress e-Commerce plugin (0.5.6.2) adds more shipping methods and new ways to add groups of variations to products.

New Shipping Methods

OrderStorm’s Shipping Methods allow for very flexible shipping – both simple and complex. Here’s an overview and some recommendations on shipping setup.

Shipping Method Types

1. Flat Rate - Set shipping as a flat rate, a percentage of the order total or specify free shipping.

2. Custom Table – Set shipping by price, weight or number of items in the order.

Methods can apply to all orders or to orders shipping into a specified zone. Zones can be created by country, state or zip code.

Flat rate example: Free shipping: Lower 48 US States – Price $0.

Custom table example: Orders over $80 ship free. $0-$30 ship $15, $31-$79 ship $20.

Here’s the Hierarchy

If the shipping method is applied to a store and no zones are set, method will apply to all orders store-wide.
If method is applied to a zone, it applies to all orders shipping to that zone. Example of a zone: Alaska and Hawaii.
If method is applied to any product in the store, it only applies to that product and not the rest of the cart. Once you apply a method to a specific product, the method is no longer store-wide.
A method can be applied to a product, category or vendor.

We recommend using Shipping Methods instead of the options on the product detail page or the batch update screens in most cases. They are much easier to change. If you decide to raise shipping from $8.95 to $9.95, its much easier to do it once in a shipping method than update product by product.

Add Variations to Products using Feature Sets

Feature sets are very useful if you have a group of products that all have the same variations. The new Feature Set function allows you to create a group of product variations to use as options for a group of products.Variations can grouped into a feature group like type, color or size. Alternately, the product variations can be standalone. A feature set of standalone items is useful if you want all your products to show the same upsell items. Example: Every flower arrangement in your store can offer a balloon, a stuffed bear and chocolate as options to add to the order.

Feature groups are an easy way to change the features on your products. Add a new color to your color chart? Discontinue a color option? Change it once in the feature set and it applies to all products that use that feature set.

First create a feature set (under the Products/ Product features tab. Then apply it to a product or products.

Here’s an example of a product with a feature set including height and color. This feature set can be applied to all other products in the store that come with this set of variations.

Note on the latest release of the OrderStorm eCommerce plugin

Your product and category names are used now as the page title in WordPress – if you have modified your theme so the ‘page titles’ do not display, you will have to add them back in before you upgrade.

Otherwise the product and category names won’t display on the page.

To Do

Install or update to the latest version of the OrderStorm e-Commerce plugin from the WordPress repository and post your questions to the support forum. Remember to use the Customer Files Manager plugin for your CSS files or back them up before you run the update. Of course, you can still contact us at support@osrdersstorm.com. We are always here to help.

Happy Selling!